Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-02-24
NJ THE OIL REGIONS.
xo,eworthy Struggle thai Wound Or
pr c,reer of "a Phenomenal Town.

rho tonic was draw poker, and it mad
~ SUGGESTED to a group of half a
o snr New Workers in the Aston House
linda bv newspaper paragraph
.sicb said that the little town of State
;ns was the greatest place for poker
t.yino in all the oil regions.
Swell. that's saying good deal. !"
"A man in the group, 'for consider
~ The size of their average pile, the
1s6eld poker sharps will stick TO a
r. Of aces as faithfully as anybody
At ever took cards.
"But | knew of an oil town that in
simmer of 1882 had about $4,000
Hsbobitants. the same man went on,
.nd by November of that year the sole
rJnstry of the town was draw poker.
wos the town of Garfield, in Warren
f,nnty. In the early part of the sum-
mar tbe first wild cat well in the Cherry
t,ooye district blew the drill out of the
o,e and began flooding the region
ritb oil. Within few weeks rail-
had was running over logs through the
Iemlock forest, city of shanties and
Wants had sprung up, and the drilling
ivells were so thick that the bull wheels
most rubbed against one another. 1t
Iras estimated that 10000 persons were
n top OF that barren hill; there were
|beatres. dance houses, pool rooms, and
Rambling bells; all the noted fighters of
he oil region were there. and the boom
Fas the biggest thing of its kind ever
cen in this country.
but the oil came out like water from
! blister after half dozen wells had
been sunk, and by the time snow fell
{yery well was a dry hole. About the
6nig persons left there when ] visited
{be town, Just before the holidays, were
Ne keeper of what had been the princi-
III hotel, Hebrew clothier, and a
tbinese laundryman. The hotel man
l. had big house on his hands. and was
Waiting for q chance to sell it for old
umber The Hebrew clothier's pecu-
srity was that he came there in his
thirt sleeves, and no man ever had seen
BIN have coat on. The Chinaman
Vas 50 fascinated by jack pots that he
toudn't get away. These three resi-
|ents had settled down to poker play
ng, evidently to see which of the three
mould have what money they had left.
tbey played in a room that had been
occupied by the Sunday school of the
First Methodist Church. Every morn
|ng. after a late breakfast, the hotel
keeper buttoned up his great coat and
EaIked leisurely to the poker room, the
(oiner'S white shirt sleeves flashed
|round the corner. and the flowing toy
berry of the Chinaman fluttered in the
last rs he joined the two other men.
(hey kept up the game till late at
(ght | was there three days, and saw
b other industry.
The next spring | was in Warren, and
hqured how the game came out The
[bnaman weakness for jack pots
|uined him, they said, and he was last
cen striking out cross lots for Oil City.
lhe Hebrew clothier hung on better, but
bis caution in the matter OF blulling en-
lbleG the hotel man gradually 10 break
lim by taking an ante out of him every
Ime he had the ace or drew cards. He
Fent away in his shirt sleeves in a
snow storm about the 1st of
March. The hotel-keeper had "a pipe of
latmal gas running into his bar-room
|Oye, and he sat by the fire till warm
heather, and then opened another house
b. in the New York oil field -